During the installation of IDS 11.50, Program Group folder is opened and Start Menu shortcuts are added. If, these actions were optional then it would make IDS more embeddable with other applications, which uses IDS in background. Customers who are embedding IDS as part of their software package usually desire near-complete invisibility.

This request was met by adding a new comma-line option “hidden” for instillation. This option will prevent creation of start menu shortcuts and suppress the Program Group folder from popping-up. Users can use this option by invoking the setup.exe (IDS 11.50 installation) from command-line and supplying “–hidden” option with the same command.

Previous version of JDBC 3.50 could not be installed on Windows 64-bit using 64-bit JRE. Installing JDBC 3.50 gave an error "Directory not writable" for all directories. Same error message was received, even after running all the process as administrator by turning UAC (User Account Control) off. Workaround for this problem was to use 32-bit JRE on Windows 64-bit to install JDBC 3.50.

This problem was solved in IDS 11.50. Now JDBC 3.50 uses newer version of Install Shield, which allows for JDBC 3.50 to be installed on 64-bit Windows using 64-bit JRE. Now, users no longer have to use 32-bit JRE to install JDBC 3.50 on Windows 64-bit. This makes users life easier, since users do not have to set up 32-bit JRE on 64-bit Windows.

Introduction:In most cases the Informix error codes are very good at explaining why there is a problem and how to fix it. Finderr(Error Message Utility), is the utility shipped with IBM Informix Dynamic Server and client products(CSDK and IConnect) that’s helps to check an error code and returns error messages corresponding to IBM Informix error numbers.

Problem:Finderr uses WinHelp. The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which was used in previous versions of Windows and it is not supported in the newer flavors of Windows Operating Systems like Vista or Windows 2008. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are not shipped with Winhelp application. So you will get error messages popping up while executing finderr utility shipped with IDS 11.50 on Windows Server 2008 and Vista:

The GUI finderr program supplied with CSDK and IConnect also doesn't work on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008. The execution of finderr utility in client products pops-up the following error messages.

OR

Solution:The workaround is to download the Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) from the following Microsoft support Web site.

In IDS releases prior to 10.00.TC5, the Informix Dynamic Server(IDS) Windows Service was allowed to log on only as user informix. Launching the IDS installation program setup.exe with the -system command line argument (only) will install IDS and create a new instance running as the Windows Local System user, bypassing screens which prompt for informix user password(informix user does not get created when this option is used).

Starting with version 11.50, you can install IDS on Windows as the local system user account by selecting the Local System User option right on the IDS Server configuration Setup panel. This option is available only in custom mode of installation.

Typically this option provides the same privileges as the informix user account; however, it uses an internal account representing a pseudo-user that does not require a password. The local system account is used by the operating system and services running under Windows during the installation of Dynamic Server. The informix user is still created by default.

However user can choose not to create an informix user account at all, but we have to note that Enterprise Replication between Dynamic Server on UNIX and IDS on Windows Operating System will not work if informix user and Informix-Admin group is not present.Along with the “Start database server as Local System User” checkbox another checkbox “Do not create user informix account” is also provided on the same panel which is greyed out unless the user picks the System User option.

Some of the benefits of why people would want to do this:

if the machine has a password expiry policy and it is not convenient to change the password of the IDS service this will save having to do it

some security policies require that the informix user not be a member of the Administrators group. If the IDS service logs on as local system user the informix user no longer has to be an administrator.

Suppose you have an application which depends on IDS. Your business requirement is application must starts after a successful IDS memory initialization. Previously there was no way you can validate the return code of oninit process to make a decision whether or not IDS initialize successfully. So, if you have a script that automatically starts IDS and the application respectively, it possible the application may start even though IDS failed to initialize.

A new oninit option has introduced to IDS 11.50 that generate a return code. Based on the return code you can customize the script and automate startup process.

The 'oninit -w' command generates following return codes:

0 - when success

1 - when initialization fails or exceed the timeout value

The 'oninit -w' command forces IDS to wait until it successfully initializes before returning to a shell prompt. You can also provide an addition argument for timeout value with '-w' option. Without any timeout value with '-w' option, IDS will use the default value e.g. 10 minutes. If IDS cannot initialize within the timeout period, oninit generates return code 1 and writes following error message to the online.log file:

Warning: wait time expired

The syntax of new command as follows:

oninit -w

oninit -w

You can use the '-w' option with combination of any other oninit initialization options.

Couple of points to remember:

In a high-availability environment, you can only use the 'oninit -w' command on primary server; it is not valid on secondary servers.

xxxx ....... represents the Code set Name or the Code set Number supported by the locale and

xyz ......... represents the Modifier. This is the only optional part in a locale value.

The modifier, sometimes refered as variant, modifies the cultural-convention settings that the language and territory settings imply. It usually indicates a special localized collating order that the locale supports.

1252 is the Code set number for Code set name, cp1252. We can specify either Code set name or the Code set number in a locale value.

where,

- de ........... represents the German language - at ............ the territory, Austria - cp1252 ... the code set used for the encoding and - euro ....... the modifier used for the locale

So, this is German language locale, for Austria, using cp1252 encoding and euro modifier.

Now, to check if this locale file exists, where to lookup ?

All locale files reside under directory $INFORMIXDIR/gls/lc11

To lookup for locale files for language (ll) and territory (tt), we check under $INFORMIXDIR/gls/lc11/ll_tt directory.

In our example, to lookup for locale files for German language (de), for territory Austria (at), we will lookup $INFORMIXDIR/gls/lc11/de_at directory

Next, under the specified locale directory, look for files with name represented by hex value of the code set name/ code set number, along with modifier name if modifier is specified, with an extension .lco

In our example, hex value for Code set cp1252 is 04e4 and modifier euro is used. So, we will look for file 04e4euro.loc under directory $INFORMIXDIR/gls/lc11/de_at.

How and where to find the hex value for a Code set name ?

For any Code set name, its Code set number and hex value can be looked-up in file $INFORMIXDIR/gls/cm3/registry.

Example:

Let us find the hex value for Code set name Latin-3.

We can find the information in file

$INFORMIXDIR/gls/cm3/registry

In the registry file ...

- first coulmn represents the code set name, - second column is code set number - third column is the hex value of the code set number, and - fourth column, is either blank or has comment about the code set.

Let us lookup for code set, Latin-3 in registry file and see what we find. We get the following value.

Latin-3 57346 0xe002 --------- ------------ ----------- -------------------------------- code set name code set number hex value in this case, there is no comment

IDS 11.50 introduced a new installation wizard (installer), which makes life easier than in past releases to set up an instance to use a variety of database clients. In this section we will discuss how to set DRDA connection during installation process.

The installation wizard is extremely user friendly and easy to navigate. Options are available with installation wizard to configure a database server alias (DBSERVERALIASES) and a port for clients that use the DRDA protocol. You can easily setup this DRDA connection via a checkbox when creating the demonstration database server instance during installation. We will see some screenshots latter in this section to get a better understanding on DRDA configuration.

There are little differences between UNIX and Windows installation wizard.

UNIX

Select option use the default configuration file to able to install database server with DRDA.

Do not select the option to customize the default configuration file, as this option does not allow setting DRDA.

Windows

By default the server installation includes DRDA setup.

You must select custom installation to exclude DRDA setup.

On UNIX platform you need to answer 'Yes' for question Do you want to create an IDS demonstration database server instance. Similarly, you need to choose option 2 - Use the default configuration file under demonstration database instance configuration. You may use default server name and server alias values or change those as per your requirement.

Following is a DRDA configuration screenshot on UNIX platform:

On Windows platform the typical installation process (default) automatically include the DRDA configuration. It will set the configuration parameter DBSERVERALIASE as "svc_drda". Custom installation process is required if you want to disable DRDA setup in demonstration server instance.

Following are some DRDA configuration screenshot on Windows platform:

The custom installation process provides controls on initialize the demonstration server. You can exclude the DRDA configuration, if you wish. By default DRDA is selected.

Things to notice if you enable a custom configuration file on windows platform, DRDA support is removed.

IDS 11.50 made a significant improvement in installation process. Started with IDS 11.50 informix introduced a new versatile installation wizard (installer), which can automatically creates a customized database server configuration file (ONCONFIG) suitable for your system environment and create a demonstration database server during installation process.

Part of the installation process installer captures inputs from user. Then evaluates the input values to ensure settings are valid, and it calculates several values for other configuration parameters based on hardware settings and database instance needs. You can use the Instance Configuration Wizard in GUI or console installation modes to use this new feature. However, make sure you choose the option “Creating Demonstration Database Server Instance” during installation process to automatically create the customized configuration file.

There are little differences between UNIX and Windows installation wizard.

If the Instance Configuration Wizard encounters a problem while validating or calculating configuration parameters for customize configuration file, the configuration file is created with default, workable configuration parameters and an appropriate message displayed.

The customized configuration file will save as 'onconfig.<DBSERVERNAME>' in etc directory under <INFORMIXDIR>.

When installing IDS 11.10 or 11.50, if you choose the option "Upgrade from the previous version", all the server binaries will be upgraded to the newer version(s) automatically.

Upgrading Informix Dynamic Server from Version 11.10 to 11.50:

When installing IDS 11.50 on Windows, direct upgrade from IDS 11.10 is not supported. If “Upgrade from the previous version” is selected the following message pops up. Installer stops beyond this point.

Since the support to install both 11.10 and 11.50 on the same machine exists, it is recommended to choose the option “Install into a default/different directory” (shown in the panel below) to install IDS 11.50. Note: This will not upgrade IDS 11.10 to IDS 11.50.

As part of providing a folder name to install the product, a completely new path must be supplied. If the folder selected already contains binaries from IDS 11.10, then the following message pops up.

User can respond to the question “Do you want to select another folder? “. Clicking “yes”, the installer returns to the destination panel where they can provide a different folder. Clicking No, the installer goes to finish panel